FAQ

FAQ

Q: Where are the cattle processed?

A: The cattle are slaughtered by Adams Slaughter House which is not a "typical" slaughter facility. We chose them after our search for the "best we could find". We toured the plant and found it to be exceptional.

Adams recently built a new facility big enough to have all the advanced equipment and technique but small enough to pay attention to detail. Most of their business is for case ready retail meat. They typically buy cattle and process them directly for placement in their own retail grocery case.

This requires exceptional attention to detail and that is why we chose them. We also found them to be very good people from top to bottom. Good, highly skilled people make all the difference.

Q: Are antibiotics or growth hormones used in the grass-fed beef cattle?

A: Antibiotic use in our cattle is limited to clinically sick animals only. We never use sub-therapeutic levels of antibiotic. We never sell an animal that has been treated twice.

All animals that receive antibiotics are given a shot if they are clinically ill. That means they are obviously sick and are running a temperature; cattle are susceptible to pneumonia and occasionally need to be treated just like people.

We take very good care of our animals and will not let them suffer, so we treat them.

We really don't treat many to begin with due to our management practices. Our goal is to avoid this all together in the near future. Our protocol states that we can treat sick calves with antibiotics, however if we do they must have at least two times the recommended withdrawal period as stated on the label of the product.

Any animal that is treated twice would be taken out of our grass-fed program.

Q: Does the E. Coli risk decrease with grass-fed beef?

A: Yes. Grass-finished beef has a minimal risk compared to grain-fed beef due to the difference in epigastria pH in the two diets. Grain diets create a much higher level of acidity in the stomach, which the E.coli bacteria need to survive. Grass-finished animals live in clean grass pastures where higher levels of sanitation greatly reduce the risk as well.

Always cook ground beef until no pink remains. Our beef is the best, but never take a chance with your family's health by serving undercooked meat.

Q: How is my meat packaged?

A: After appropriate aging, meat is vacuum packed in state of the art cryovac packaging. This airless environment ensures high quality and long life in your freezer.

Q: What cooking preparations are necessary?

A: It is best to thaw meat using the refrigerator. Using this method, a one pound package will thaw in approximately 20-24 hours. Microwave ovens are less friendly than the refrigerator; however, if used, select the lowest power setting to avoid cooking the outside while the inside thaws. Check the meat frequently to monitor microwave thawing.

Cook ground beef until no pink remains, or until the meat temperature registers 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Slow-cooking methods that retain moisture work great on lean, red meat. Braising is recommended for roasts and low heat is ideal for steaks.

Steaks should be prepared to a minimum of 140 degrees Fahrenheit (rare) to a maximum of 160 degrees Fahrenheit (medium) to harvest the best tenderness and flavor.

Q: Why is grass fed beef more expensive than grain fed beef?

A: Grass-fed beef is more expensive than grain fed, but a little knowledge of the cattle industry can quickly explain why.

Cattle producers today operate on an extremely low unit margin. Cattlefax stats over the last 20 years reports an average profit of $3 per head.

Only sheer volume allows survival and hence small family farms are disappearing, giving way to the vertically integrated huge corporate producers. These large producers, also, own the feedlots, the granaries, and the meat packing facilities.

In this industry where volume is what determines profit, the speed at which the animal can be fattened becomes very important. Cattle confined to feedlots and fed grain/corn fatten in a much shorter length of time.

Unquestionably, cattle in feedlots gain weight fast. However, the gain is at the expense of the health and comfort of the animal. Feedlot conditions necessitate the need for constant medicating while an animal becomes ready for slaughter at 12-13 months of age. Cattle in feedlots are given enough grain to make them gain an average of 3 to 4 pounds a day. This gorging destroys their livers.

A grass fattened animal is often not ready for slaughter until 18, and upwards of 24 months. If you count this extra time as that animal paying 'rent' on the land grazed plus opportunity loss for time which could be used developing another animal . . . then it isn't as hard to see how the cost goes up quickly.

Along the same lines is a consideration of space. In the feedlots, thousands and even hundreds of thousands of animals are confined to a few acres. The real estate required to fatten that same number of animals on grass would be very costly in a land where real estate prices soar.

If you actually do a cost analysis, you would find that corn is a good bit cheaper to feed than grass (huge government subsidies help this be so).

A recent NY Times article by Michael Pollen "Power Steer" gives an excellent cost analysis showing how corn gives the cheapest, fastest gain possible plus he outlined the horrible conditions in our nations feedlots.
Currently, with few exceptions, the only sources available for true grass fed beef are smaller, family-type producers who have decided to market their product directly to the consumer.

Being a small family farm, our costs are phenomenal over the cost of the large corporate producers (IBP, ConAgra's, Excel) or the huge retailers (Omaha Steaks, etc.) who can take advantage of volume when it comes to shipping and packaging.